Baby Black Rat Snake

I walked into the family room to find 3 cats all in a row staring intently out the screen door onto the deck. Looking out, I didn't see anything, so went back to folding laundry. The Hmong dresser scarf was not quite dry so I opened the door to drape it over a chair. As I started down the steps I found this little guy sprawled full length along the riser. Thinking it was dead, I touched it with my toe. Hello, not dead.

Well my friends, I am pleased to announce the arrival of a baby at my house. Remember the black rat snake I kept cutting out of the netting back in the Spring? Well, she is apparently still around.

Is this the cutest face ever?

Sitting Pretty

Lizzie came to live with my mother, the year she turned 6. It was during the Depression when things were dear. All of her friends had Momma dolls. My mother wanted one too. How do you tell a child that there is no money for such things? My mother had seen her in a catalog that had come to the house. Somehow my grandparents scraped together the money. My mother named her after her grandmother, Elizabeth Wood. My mother cherished that doll for years. I remember her from my child hood. But Lizzie fell onto hard times. I don’t remember how she came to live with me. She had a trip to a doll hospital and had to go to an ICU in PA. Then she got some spiffy new clothes and the first shoes of her life. My mother no longer wants Lizzie and she lives with me now. When you come to visit, you can find her in the blue room. She is looking pretty spry for a 70 year-old gal.